April Spending Recap

I'm finally back on the wagon when it comes to tracking our spending. Since we were away on vacation in February, I got a bit sidetracked, but here is our April spending report..

Item	Spent	Breakdown
Rent	$1,122	Rent – ‘nuff said
Food	$969.01	$663.72 – groceries $305.29 – eating out or snacks at work
Car	$838.01	$99.75 – parking $500 – two car payments $150 – two transfers to our car fund (for insurance, oil changes and future repairs) $88.26 – gas
Savings	$400.00	$300 – RRSPs* $100 – vacation fund
Misc. and household	$273.08	Various drugstore purchases, household items.
Gifts	$126.69	Gift for my MIL’s birthday (This also includes my BIL’s gift for his mom and he paid me back)
Cats	$54.68	Pet insurance (we include their food and litter in the groceries amount)
Entertainment	$35.00	We went to a play starring a friend ($15 per person, plus the cost of a drink for husband)
Clothing	$33.05	One new summer top for me
Health	$15.30	10% of my 6-month dental check-up
Bank fees	$10.95	Monthly fee

*this does not include my pension, which is taken directly off my paycheque. 

Food is crazy high and we need to get better about not eating out or ordering in so much. I think we need to start going to the grocery store more often. If we have food that I want in the house, I am not as tempted. It's when we're low on snacks or easy-to-make meals that I get lazy and just go and buy something or order in. If we go more often and stock up, maybe this will ease up.

But what really surprised me was how high the misc. and household category was. I can't even remember what some of that stuff was. I know we bought a closet organizer, some vitamins, and that's about it... So I really have to start tracking where that misc. money is going better. 

Now that I'm back on the wagon, I'll try to keep better tabs on what was actually purchased instead of just the category and amount.